The invention relates to photography and more particularly relates to keyed data-and-print album pages.
Recent advances in magnetic storage on film and the availability of camera memory have opened the door to various possibilities for collecting and storing picture-taking data on photographic film and in film and digital cameras. Picture-taking data, recorded on a photographic print, has many uses. For example, the date, time, and location that the picture was taken can be used later in organizing prints. Advanced Photo System(trademark) cameras currently collect some data that can be used to aid in photofinishing, and other data that can be placed on the backs of prints, or on an index print. Sound data is particularly useful, since the combination of both visual and audible information enhances the viewer""s overall sensory experience and aids in the recollection of memories. The sound can have been recorded at the time that the photograph has been taken, or dictated as an annotation at a later time.
Data has been stored on or with prints in a variety of ways including, separated media, data-carrying picture holders, magnetic strips and other attachments, and printed information. Separated media, such as memory cards, tapes, and discs have high capacity, but also have high cost and risk of loss. Data-carrying picture holders, such as a talking photoalbums, have good capacity; but tend to be cumbersome and very costly. Magnetic strips and similar attachments require manipulation with a playback head or the like and require additional steps in the photofinishing chain or by the user to affix the strips to prints.
The most convenient data storage method is printing. Data can be in the form of words or symbols or can be provided in machine readable form as an encodement or symbology, such as a one- or two-dimensional bar code or other array of encoded data. Encodements provide a much greater storage density per unit area than words or symbols. The two-dimensional symbologies maximize the amount of information that can be encoded on a planar surface. Bar code symbols are formed from bars or elements that are typically rectangular in shape with a variety of possible widths. The specific arrangement of elements defines the character represented according to a set of rules and definitions specified by the encodement scheme used. The relative widths of the bars and the spaces between the adjacent bars is determined by the type of coding used, as is the actual size of the bars and spaces. The number of characters per inch represented by the bar code symbol is referred to as the density or resolution of the symbol. A number of different bar code symbologies exist including UPC/EAN, Code 39, Code 49, Code 128, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5, and PDF 417 used by Symbol Technologies, Inc., of Holtsville, N.Y., and the encodement scheme marketed as xe2x80x9cPaperDiskxe2x80x9d by Cobblestone Software, Inc., of Lexington, Mass. A wide variety of encodement readers are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,262 discloses a simple, manually scanned reader for one-dimensional codes. More complex readers are needed for two-dimensional codes. These readers are held over the code, while the reader internally scans the code or captures an instantaneous two-dimensional image. A code can be read as a visible light image or as invisible radiation image. Some optical code readers illuminate visible bar codes with a beam of invisible or xe2x80x9cnearly invisiblexe2x80x9d radiation and detect a resulting fluorescence or reflectance of an indicia. U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,262 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,750 teach reading a code by scanning with an invisible beam. U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,182 by Havens et. al., discusses the use of an integrated source-image sensor matrix in which an array of photonic devices can be configured to both emit light and detect light, for the purpose of reading indicia.
Machine readable encodements have been associated with images on media so that the sounds can be reproduced from the encodements. Such systems are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,276,472 and 5,313,235 in relation to photographic prints, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,059,126 and 5,314,336 in relation to other objects or printed images.
The reverse side of photographic prints has often been used to store sound or other data because it does not interfere with the viewing of the print the way that front side storage schemes do; however, data printed on the backs of prints or on index prints is not conveniently available if the prints are placed in or are printed as album pages. Data can be printed in visible form on the front of prints, in a border or the like, but this can detract from the esthetics of the images on the prints. The size of a printed encodement is also limited by dimensions of the border.
It is possible to print data invisibly over a visible image. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,093,147; 5,286,286; 5,516,590; 5,541,633; 5,684,069; 5,755,860; and 5,766,324 for examples of differing dyes or inks that may be selected for thermal dye transfer printing or inkjet printing and which either absorb a selected impinging light wavelength or fluoresce in response to the impinging light radiation of emitted light beam. For reading, the encodement is illuminated using invisible electromagnetic radiation that is subject to modulation by the encodement. The resulting encodement radiation image is captured, decoded, and played back. The invisible radiation image is captured using a reader that is capable of capturing only invisible images within a selected band. The term xe2x80x9cbandxe2x80x9d is used herein to refer to one or more contiguous or non-contiguous regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The term xe2x80x9cinvisiblexe2x80x9d is used herein to describe material which is invisible or substantially invisible to the human eye when viewed under normal viewing conditions, that is, facing the viewer and under sunlight or normal room illumination such as incandescent lighting. The invisible encodement can be produced by development of a photographic mulsion layer, inkjet printing, thermal dye transfer printing or other printing ethod. (These procedures are also referred to generically herein as xe2x80x9cinvisible-rintingxe2x80x9d.)
Not all sound files or data files are the same size, when printed as n invisible encodement. The area taken up by the encodement varies with the mount of data and the storage density, which in turn is a finction of the resolving ower of the printing and detection equipment used. Digital sound files that are oderately compressed and of more than a second or two duration, represent relatively large printed encodements.
There is no space problem if an encodement is small relative to a related printed visible image. Large encodements are problematic, if for a given encodement format the encodement is unable to fit on the face of a related printed visible image. This is more complex problem if album pages are involved. Two types of album pages are xe2x80x9cholder-typexe2x80x9d album pages, in which printed sheets are held by a support, usually in pockets; and xe2x80x9cimage-typexe2x80x9d album pages, in which multiple images are printed on a sheet that also acts as a support. U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,692 discloses an image-type album page. In any case, xe2x80x9calbum pagesxe2x80x9d as the term is used herein, have multiple images or sites for multiple images on each page. The visible images can have different sizes and shapes on a single album page. An album, that is a set of album pages held by a binding, can include pages having a variety of different groupings of sizes and shapes of visible images. These differences in sizes and shapes and groupings are appealing to users and can be required by different formats of photographic prints.
One solution to the problem of fitting data files on album pages, as invisible encodements, is to make all the encodements of a size that will fit on all the visible images, by cutting data files to length. This can be done with sound files, but is undesirable. With a set of sound files or other data files that are matched to a set of photographs, other issues arise. Not all of the data files may have the same value to the user. For example, some sound files in a set may be garbled or otherwise unusable. When sound files have been captured at the time of image capture, recording times and encodement sizes may differ and the relative value of the files to the user may be inverse to the length of the respective files, since the user is likely to record valued sounds for longer durations than sounds of little value. These issues make it impractical to treat all data files the same way for encodement printing.
Some encodement systems allow encodements to be printed in different area formats having different ratios of width to length. For example, the data provided in a square area can be reformatted to any of a variety of rectangular shapes. To differentiate from other types of encodements, data file encodements in which the area shape can be reformatted are referred to herein as xe2x80x9cdata patchesxe2x80x9d.
Examples of encodement methods that produce data patches are schemes in accordance with Standard PDF 417 and the LS49042D Scanner System marketed by Symbol Technologies, Inc., of Holtsville, N.Y.; and the encodement scheme marketed as Paper Disk by Cobblestone Software, Inc., of Lexington, Mass.
Many encodements systems can be read by pointing a reader in an appropriate direction and then actuating the reader. With closely spaced encodements, some care in targeting may be required for play back of a desired encodement. With invisible data patches this becomes more problematic, particularly with data patches that are not limited to a fixed size and shape.
It is well known to provide separate or attached keys on maps, diagrams, and other collections of information.
It would thus be desirable to provide an improved album page that makes the reading of invisible data patches simple and easy.
The invention is defined by the claims. The invention, in its broader aspects, provides a keyed data-and-print album page has a receiver having an array of image spaces, a plurality of invisible printed encodements, and a visible key. The image spaces each have a visible boundary. The encodements each have a margin. The encodements each at least partially overlap at least one of the image spaces. The margins are each in registration with at least one of the boundaries. The key indicates the relative geometry of the boundaries of the visible image spaces and the margins of the invisible encodements.
It is an advantageous effect of at least some of the embodiments of the invention that a visible key is provided on the album page that shows the geometric relationship of the invisible data patches and visible image spaces.